THank you for letting me join

Greetings;
My name is Jeff Spears. I live a spit and whistle North of Ann Arbor Michigan near
South Lyon. It is almost mid March, there is snow on the ground and I am visualizing
my new hobby for the coming warm season -- Motored Bikes!

I am fairly competant with news groups and forums. My approach is: Read read read.
Post when folks can benefit or with genuine questions only. Use subject lines that say
what the thing is about. Help keep the thing useful.

My mechanical experience is mostly of the 'armchair' variety. Although my ability to fix
old broken cars is fine, I shine more in talking about it as opposed to actually doing it. Not
to say I am inept---just lazy! For example: I just read a wonderful blurb on Wikipedia
explaining exhaust expansion chamber. I understand plenty now and can discuss
this with friends how to build one. Actually *building one* though---chances are will
probably never get around to it.

I can certainly fix my own motor bike on the side of the road if it keeps me from
peddling.

I have been thinking about posting a question to the forum in the garage. No doubt
some moderator cruises this group to reward newbys for doing the right thing.
Therefore, would you find a question asking about any experience using MSD
ignition circuits made for GoPeds--and whether they would work with Happy Time
motors acceptable and worthwhile? I searched for MSD ignition and 'spark advance'
and found nothing on the subject. What say you?

Thank you for having this great forum. Will do my best never to abuse the privlege and
welcome any comments from Moderators steering me in the right direction.

if you have the knowledge to make a go of it, please DO get something started on that more-better ignition idea (choose "frame-mount" or "wild" depending on far you think it will go)...we have to find something practical to do with all those "misplaced" components

keep in mind that you'll still be dealing with a very primitive and inconsistent magneto.

Best regards to you!!--I am new here as well,, seems like a bunch of good guys here!!--I attended college at NorthWood Institute
in Midland ,, left right after the first snow---to FL. State. What kind of bikes do you have, or are thinking of getting? Take Care, Rhett

Thank you all for your nice replies. B. Spears -- yeah thats her all right -- you can't tell by looking
at us that we're related -- until you compare our bellybuttons.

Just ordered a Spookey Tooth bike today---It might be a while. Considered just getting a motor and
bolting the thing onto something in my buddies bikepile. However experience shows I usually just
end up spending more money in the long run. May try to build my own once a tried and trued method
is here to compare against.

While waiting for the thing, will probably spend a significant amount of time dwelling on it and thinking
up all sorts of crazy ideas. For example a CHT gauge--which I will post here shortly. I will probably
just post ideas here and let people respond.

Westach makes a number of real groovy
airplane instruments. One of them uses a thermocouple ring around a spark plug
to measure the temperature of the cylinder head (CHT). They have a variety of
styles available. I was looking at the 2inch gauge with the bullet shaped enclosure
and pipe frame mount. I think it cost under a hundred bucks.

I read about these things while reading up on ultralight aircraft. Apparently, typical
twin cylinder 2-stroke air cooled snow-mobile (ski-doo to our Canadian friends) engine
has a tendency to 'cold-seize' under certain sets of circumstance. For example, imagine
flying your ultralight at cruising altitude for some time, then reducing throttle to slowly go
down as you near the runway, then hit the gas for a powered landing and oops---cold
seizure. The piston temperature got out of whack with the cylinder temperature.

So airplane people like to know what their head temp is. They also like to know what
their Exhaust Gas Temperature (EGT) is with a simliar set up. In fact, we can buy
dual EGT/CHT guages from Westach.

hi k8jef and re welcome to the forum...do start a new thread in the picture gallery of your new build...as far as the airoplane info we have an off topic area for just that kind of thing here: http://www.motoredbikes.com/forumdisplay.php?f=75 good luck on all your endeavors and happy motoring..oh you have the right about reading, when i first joined i started at the begining which was MBc in it's infancy, when senior members were all newbies, it kinda reads like a book really esp. picture gallery, i do not have allot of time on line to go everywhere on all forums...
well good luck Jeff..